On this date (Aug 10) in 1962, a legend was born. In the Marvel comic, Amazing Fantasy, issue #15, we were introduced to The Amazing Spider-Man.
You read that right… Spider-Man is 50 years old!
In the early 60s, Stan Lee was trying to differentiate Marvel comics from the superhero archetypes that DC Comics had been developing – supremely powerful beings with virtually no serious flaws. The DC heroes were unattainable ideals… sure, Superman was vulnerable to kryptonite, but that wasn’t a bad trade-off for being basically a demigod. Yeah, Batman was an orphan with no real powers, but he more than made up for it by being a gazillionaire genius martial artist with a flair for the dramatic.
Stan Lee didn’t want heroes that were ideals to which kids would aspire, he wanted heroes with which kids could actually identify. A typical nerdy high-schooler, Peter Parker was just the type of kid that would resonate with the average comic book reader.
I’d like to think that I wasn’t an average comic book reader, but I loved this idea. Regardless of my wildest dreams, there was literally no way that it would suddenly be revealed that I was from another planet, with fantastic superpowers resulting from Earth’s yellow sun… But there was a chance – however microscopic – that I, too, could be bitten by a radioactive spider, acquiring amazing abilities. After all, that wasn’t science fiction – that was science!!
It was a formula for success. Now we had a hero who could do wondrous things, but that also worried about maintaining his grade point average while keeping up with his part-time job, and not looking too dumb in front of the girls.
And, in case I didn’t emphasize this point, he was a teenager… At this point, teens in comics were the sidekicks. Captain America had Bucky. Batman had Robin. But Spidey wasn’t a sidekick. He was the hero.
Add in his snarky sense of humor, colorful costume, and constant insecurity, and you have the perfect superhero for teenagers.
It’s no surprise that Spider-Man is Marvel’s flagship character, or that he made #3 on IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time last year.
Comics, animated and live-action TV shows, newspaper comic strips, video games, movies, and even a Broadway musical… I think it’s safe to say that Spidey has made it.
Happy birthday, Webhead. You definitely make turning 50 look pretty good!